Fringe (1.17): Bad Dreams

Air Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Episode Written and Directed by Academy Award-winner Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind")

As a suicide incident occurs at New York's iconic Grand Central station, Agent Dunham simultaneously witnesses the event while asleep and dreaming in Boston. Rattled by the extraordinary and coincidental circumstances, Olivia, Peter and Walter investigate further, but keep coming up empty-handed. As these violent occurrences continue and worsen, Olivia is sent into an unthinkable direction and shocking details emerge about the ZFT manuscript, the highly experimental drug Cortexiphan and Olivia's childhood in the all-new "Bad Dreams" episode of FRINGE airing Tuesday, April 21 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (FR-117) (TV-14 D, L, S, V)

Cast: Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham; Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop; John Noble as Walter Bishop; Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles; Kirk Acevedo as Charlie Francis; Mark Valley as John Scott; Blair Brown as Nina Sharp; Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth

Guest Cast: Ari Graynor as Rachel; Lily Pilyblad as Ella David Call as Nick Jane; Laurie Williams as Dr. Miller; Victor Verhaege as Billy Willis; Johanna Day as Mouse Willis; Kelly Briter as Ginger; Ed Vassallo as Manager; Darren Copeland as Bouncer; Rebeccas Naomi Jones as Rise Pears; Duane McLaughlin as Todd Pears

• The groundwork for Bell’s arrival is laid in the April 21 episode [titled Bad Dreams], which finds Olivia (Anna Torv) learning more about the role Bishop played in Bell’s experimentation on her with the drug Cortexiphan when she was a girl.

“What she finds out about some of the frightening things Walter did does not sit very well with her,” Anna says about the episode, written and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”). “Olivia starts having these horrific dreams of people dying and when she wakes up, she realizes it’s been happening for real.” The climactic scene finds hordes of people on a Manhattan rooftop about to plunge to their deaths.